The narratology of observation : studies in a technique of European literary realism / Martin Wagner.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wagner, Martin, 1983- author.

Series:

Paradigms (Walter de Gruyter & Co.) ; v. 7.

Paradigms ; volume 7

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Realism in literature.

European literature--History and criticism.

European literature.

Genre:

Literary criticism.

Physical Description:

viii, 184 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

Berlin : Walter de Gruyter, 2018.

Summary:

How does literature evoke reality? This book takes cues from the history of scientific observation to provide a new approach to this longstanding question of literary studies. It reconstructs a narrative technique of?literary? observation in which reality appears by mimicking processes of visual perception, and it traces the functioning of this technique through a wide range of European fiction from the early 18th to the late 19th centuries.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Description and Narration p. 32

The functions of description p. 32

What do we see when we read a description? p. 39

Description, narration, and literary realism p. 45

Chapter 2 Before Observation (Le Diable boiteux) p. 57

The pleasure of seeing p. 61

Pleasure and instruction p. 67

Making images p. 69

Observation in Le Diable boiteux p. 73

The legacy of Le Diable boiteux p. 77

Chapter 3 Observation (Les Nuits de Paris) p. 81

Spectatorship p. 85

Observation p. 89

Storytelling p. 93

Chapter 4 Failing Observations p. 101

Die Leiden des jungen Werthers p. 104

Lenz p. 122

"The Man of the Crowd" p. 130

Chapter 5 Another Form of Observation? (Sherlock Holmes) p. 143

Sherlock Holmes observes the crime scene p. 145

Observation or classification? p. 149.

Notes:

Includes bibliogrpahical references (173-181 pages) and index.

ISBN:

3110595184

9783110595185

OCLC:

1028883621